Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. apparently won’t miss his former teammate Freddie Freeman this season.
Freeman signed with the Dodgers on March 17, which led to an outpouring of gratitude from Braves fans who will miss the All-Star first baseman.
However, during Acuña Jr.’s Instagram live Wednesday night, the two-time All-Star admitted that he will miss “nothing” about Freeman.
“[We were] close because we shared the same stadium but we had a lot, how do you say … clash, a lot of clash,” Acuña Jr. said in Spanish, via English translation.
When asked what led to the friction between him and Freeman, Acuña Jr. alluded to the All-Star first baseman as being a part of a group of veteran players that tried to overly enforce clubhouse behavior when he was a rookie.
“When you are coming up, there is always someone who wants to keep you in check,” Acuña Jr. said. “Someone comes up from the minor leagues … they come up with their eyeblack, the black thing you put on your face. Your glasses, your hat … a lot of people see it badly. And one, you don’t see it bad because it’s part of the game, you know? So for me, a lot of the veterans were trying to keep me in check, in 2018 a lot of guys were keeping me in check. They called me into the office … and told me: “No, you can’t use [the eyeblack]’ and they took it off me with a rag.”
Acuña Jr. said that this situation happened more at the beginning of his career, as veteran players would not do something like that to him now in his fifth year. However, at the time, Acuña Jr. said he stayed silent.
“Yeah, you can’t say anything you know?” Acuña Jr. said. “You can’t say anything, I would just say, ’One day, I’m going to be a veteran.’ I’m not saying that I’m a veteran now, but no one is going to take something off my face now, you know?”
